Update for the sake of updating

So,

My Bro in Law is here at the moment competing in the "battle of the chefs". Day 1 he placed in the Top 5, Today is Day 2 and he is currently at the convention centre competing against other Chefs from the Asia Pacific region. Good Luck !!

GM was interviewed this morning for a Chinese travel show called "Travel World" produced by Shenzhen media group . The segment will play on a Chinese station and an Astro channel in about 6 - 8 weeks.

I'm keeping busy doing the charity thing, I'm about to head off to view another orphanage as we are still looking into "adopting" a charity, similar to what we did in Indonesia.

And the goddamn postman has decided to start stealing my parcels, 2 missing so far, grrrr !!!!

Here's some of the orphans I've been working with.

Pics from the weekend.

I've been away for the last 6 days, Finally arrived back home yesterday (yay!!!)
Snapped these pics a few days ago.
Enjoy.

Pork Recipe.

PORK RIBS with Tangy Glaze

Ingredients:

Baby Back or Short ribs (thawed)

For Glaze:

½ Cup Balsamic Vinegar

½ Cup Water

4 tbs Soy Sauce

1 cup Brown Sugar

2 tbs Corn flour

Method:

Wash & pat dry dribs, wrap in aluminum foil

Pre heat oven to 160 degrees C slow cook ribs in the foil for about 1 hour 45 mins, Check on them after 1.5 hours, To test readiness take out a rack (no need to unwrap it from foil) and pierce with a knife. If there is no resistance when the knife goes through the meat is cooked.

While the ribs are cooking, put all the glaze ingredients in a small pot (add the corn flour dry, no need to make a paste) and stir over a medium low heat until the mixture bubbles and thickens.

Finish the ribs on a BBQ or Grill (This is for presentation to get the black grill lines on the meat) and pour the glaze over before serving.

For Smokey BBQ Ribs, Make a marinade for the below ingredients, place ribs on aluminum foil, pour over marinade. Cover & refrigerate overnight. Follow above cooking instructions.

For Marinade:

Heinz smokey BBQ Sauce
Tomato Sauce
1 tbs Honey (or Brown sugar)
A dash of Paprika
A dash of Onion Powder

Busy, Busy, Busy

Been so busy of late,

I had 5 in laws turn up last week & it's almost a full time job playing host to them.

I've just started helping with another Charity, more hands on this time round.

Still making small batches of mineral make up.

Have had friends arrive from Oz unannounced (not staying at this hotel) & send me a message to say "Oi we're here Biyatch!" so will host a catch up dinner tomorrow night.

Tasted a durian for the first time today (finally! Only took me 3 years). OMG , it certainly is an 'acquired taste'. Think of 'Garlic Pudding' multiple that taste by 1000 and that will give you an idea of what a durian is like to eat. yuck, yuck, yuck.

Shopped until hubby dropped today, I was still raring to go, he was tired & hungry.

The hotel is pretty boring this week, We did have some wait staff deliver room service earlier and took the opportunity to dob on the kitchen staff (no white bread, no chicken burgers, no apple, pineapple or carrot juice. Lots of customer complaints ) So just need to figure out why the Exec Chef is running every thing down so low. He's new to the hotel, first week on. So I assume the low stock has more to do with the old chef not stock taking during his last few weeks here.

No Monkey or Snake Sightings.

Oh a guest came down with typhus, I know him fairly well so jokingly told him not to poke around in dirty holes and to disinfect his clothes. Good thing I did as I wiki'd "Typhus" & seems it's transmitted via body lice. I think body lice is a nice name for "crabs".

M&M & Choc Chip Cookies

Drama's at the moment with the Hubby as he is being an inconsiderate jerk. So Here's a yummy cookie recipe. (um joining those 2 sentences made sense in my mind)

I'm quite a good little baker and was asked to make this recipe as morning tea for a S.E Asian F&B conference held at the hotel once, They were a big hit.

M&M & Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes approx 20

Ingredients

125g Butter

½ Cup caster sugar

½ cup light brown sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 & ¾ cups SR Flour

½ tsp salt

2 x 200g packets of M&M’s (add more is desired)

180g Choc chips (add more is desired)

Method

1. Pre heat oven to 180C and line biscuit trays with baking paper.
2. Cream together butter, both sugars and vanilla until mixture is pale. Add egg and mix until well combined. Sift in flour and salt mix well with wooden spoon.
3. Add in M&M’s and choc chips mixing until all combined.
4. Shape dough into small round balls and place on trays allowing room for cookie to spread. Bake for approx 15mins, Cool on tray for 5 mins before transferring to wire rack.

* 15 mins baking time gives the cookie a soft moist centre, increase the cooking time to 18 mins if you want a crunchy centre.

Business as Usual

So GM is back from Mumbai.

He has an inbox full of guest complaints, mostly boring things like:

1. Guest asked for "Doctor". Engineering guy turned up with an "adapter"

2. Guest complains she did not receive a complimentary fruit basket on arrival. (Get over yourself lovey)

I might start posting recipes on this site, I love cooking & one of the perks here is I can get my hands on a lot of delicious recipes from the management company's top executive chefs.

Need to call the Expat Women's Association regarding charity work, Then I'm going shopping.

*I think I'll start referring to Husband as GM in my posts as its quicker to type.

My Happy New Year, 2006/07

My Husband is still not back from Mumbai. Since I've had a few days of peace and quite I took the opportunity to get a lot of my stories typed up and published.

My New Years Eve, 2006, Count down to 2007.

NYE is always spent at the Hotel, All major Holidays are, When we host huge parties GM & Wife can't exactly take a rain check and be a no show can we?

NYE 2007 was no different, We had a 1000 balloon drop happen at the stroke of midnight and partied the night away to an 8 piece local band who did covers of Black Eyed Peas, Rihana (ella, ella, ella) and other current chart toppers.

1st Jan 2007 was the last night the band was scheduled to play, After a very successful NYE party the night before, GM (husband) and I really let our hair down. drinks were flowing & a great time was had by all. The night ended for us around 4 o'clock in the morning.

8:00 am the phone rings, it's the The F&B Manager (I'll call him Chen), whom Say's "Police are here, They need to verify GM's work permit" we are both nursing nasty hangovers so Husband (GM) queries whether or not he has to do this straight away. Chen says he'll find out and ends the call.

8:10 am Phone rings, Chen again, speaking to GM "Um, The Police would like to see a copy of your work permit and visa" Hung over Cranky GM snaps "they have no authority or jurisdiction over my work permit & visa, if there is an issue with it get an immigration officer to contact me" and hangs up.

8:30 am Phone Rings, Chen again, speaking to GM "The Police have left, One of the engineering guys as well as the chief engineer have been arrested, The police have requested you to the police station to assist with their enquiries"

GM then gets out of bed, showers & dresses and is off to sort this mess out (with a pounding headache & an empty belly) he is accompanies by "Beth" The HR manager whom also holds a law degree ....

At the police station GM learns what prompted the current events.

Police: At 6am this morning police witnessed a member of your staff (the engineering guy) tampering with a fire hydrant. A hose was connected to the hydrant and run off water was seen to be collected and deposited into the fish pond.

Beth is handed a pen & paper then asked to draw the company org chart. Naturally GM sits at the top of the chart.

Police show GM the handwritten org chart and advise he is being help on suspicion of theft of water! as he is the boss of this organization he is the man responsible. (Gotta love the corrupt police in South East Asia)

The Chief engineer tries to explain to the police that as there is no fire department in the area and the Hotel has a volunteer fire fighting team on staff to service the hotel and immediate area (which is basically vacant land & small village). The Engineering guy was servicing the Hydrant and instead of wasting the run off water he was recycling it into the fish pond. Why at 6am? Well the resort was running at 100% occupancy and the task was performed early before the breakfast rush.

Police don't care for explanations at this stage, They're quite smug and happy with themselves in the knowledge they have cracked this huge organized crime syndicate.

Now mind you this is all taking place at a snails pace, The police are taking smoke breaks every 15 mins and 2 finger typing the statements into the computer.

GM gets impatient and snaps at the police about their incompetence (BIG MISTAKE)

Police man decides its lunch time and heads out, I get a phone call from GM to say he's ok & doesn't know how long he'll be.

5pm rolls by, Nnother phone call from GM to me "Police have gone for dinner, no new updates, should be finished when the police get back"

Midnight I fall asleep alone.

6am next day, I call the Hotel 2IC for an update, Beth had had left the station that night so we had no further developments to report but the 2IC is a local and assures me GM will be ok.

I'm advised the police are just after money and this is a common occurrence here. I'm also advised GM has started a hunger strike (lol, I actually found humour in this and thought "way to go with the non violent resistance, hun").

So the 2IC advises Beth was on her way back to the station via the hotel, So I get the Exec Chef to make some sandwiches for hubby & gather a change of clothes for him also, I ask if I can go with Beth to the station but am told No, as I may be roped into this mess and as I am "white" the bribe money will go up dramatically because as we all know "White Westerners are millionaires" (This is a common misconception with many S.E Asians)

Off Beth goes while I wait at home, Back at the station when 24 hours lapse from the time the initial report was taken in strolls the police man and goes straight for the sandwiches packed for GM. (Legally Police can hold suspects for 24 hours with out formal arrest & Damn it I should of requested ham sandwishes !) After the Police have had the morning snack intended for GM They are now ready to negotiate.

In steps Beth (Law degree holder) to begin negotiations. Initially the asking price to secure GM's release is $100,000 SGD (Yup, one hundred thousand Singapore dollars)

During negotiations the Police explain the situation like this "Pay or we charge him with theft, he could sit in jail for months before the courts even think of setting a date for the hearing" (And S.E Asian prisons are BAD! read a book titled "The Damage Done" for an honest insight into it)

Negotiations go back and forth until eventually a $50,000 SGD payment is settled upon.
By this stage the hotel owners, owners rep, GM's regional manager and the head office are all well aware of the situation.

Beth heads off to the bank and is met by the owners rep who authorises the withdrawal of funds from the owners bank account.

The money is then delivered in a brown paper bag and my fugitive husband is set free !!!!!

He showers, eats, then sleeps till the next morning. I question him about his hunger strike, he advises the cell at the station was filthy, with roaches and lizards running around every where.

He was offered food but was served sludge with half a rat in it. So the hunger strike wasn't a form of non violent protest after all.

The only good thing to come out of this ordeal was Beth, we always thought she was as dumb as a box of hammers and was on the verge of being fired but she shone through this ordeal and managed to hold onto her job.

Also just want to add, corruption exists on all levels but NEVER have I experienced it like this. This was not corruption rather Extortion.

P.S This did not take place in Singapore, The Singapore sums I mention are the equivalents of the currency here.

* Hmmm, No pictures of this drama to post so here is one of me taken in March. I was building sand castles, you can see them in the background, lol - I'm tired, need to sleep now.

The Exorcism of ..... A housekeeper ?!?

This event happened back in April and was one of the reasons for starting this blog as after relaying the story to friends, they commented that I should keep a journal of daily life here.

Here goes,

One Sunday, My Husband's only day off during the week. He and I decided to do a spot of fishing, I don't particularly like fishing I enjoy getting out on the open waters for a few hours for a change of scenery .

We had a great half days fishing expedition, headed out for a long boozy lunch then it was off to a bar to watch the F1 (We are huge F1 fans.)

Fast forward to Monday, Husband comes home from work & first thing out of his mouth is "You would never believe what happened yesterday". Husband has been in the game for over 15 years and I thought had seen it all. So hearing him utter that phrase, instantly he had my attention and I'm thinking "This ought to be good."

Turns out while we were enjoying an eventful Sunday so was one of the housekeepers, we'll call her "Sue".

Sue unknown to us at the time, has a history of mental illness (note: In S.E Asia there is not a very thorough understanding of mental illness amongst the general public. People are referred to as "Crazy" or "Not Crazy") Sue is one of the "Crazy" ones.


Anyway Sue had a turn while at work, initially she "fainted" and was passed out for around an hour, She came to, Jumped up and ran at full speed into a door, went down for the count (again), not before managing to bust up the door, it had a huge dent in it and was taken off a hinge.

On hearing this I'm thinking WTF?!?!? How is this scenario even possible in a work place?!?! OH&S anyone ?!?!

But wait there is more to the story,

The housekeeping supervisor in all her wisdom decided to leave Sue when she initially fainted, I guess in her expert medical opinion a Doctor was not necessary.

Upon Sue awakening and having her up close & personal encounter with the door, The supervisor then decided (medical) attention was required.

So naturally a call is placed to the local Muslim holy man to come & preform an exorcism on poor "possessed" Sue.

The events of Sunday had all been relayed by the weekend duty manager report during morning briefing, Husband then had to call an emergency meeting with all department heads to educate them on the dangers of believing in this supernatural nonsense. Then an "emergency" first aid refresher course was scheduled to begin the following week.

Sue was placed on sick leave and husband was left trying to figure out who to bill for the broken door. Sue, Satan or charge it out as a maintence expense.

Seeing as I can't post pics of any one involved in the event, Here's my attempted shot of Ferrari (No idea if its Kimi or Massa) at Sepang, Malaysia.

Stereo Types

When I was still living in Sydney I would always jump on my high horse and reprimand people for using ethnic stereo types.

Fast forward 3 years and I'm one of those people !! After you travel abroad and experience different cultures stereo types do become apparent. Yes I know not ALL people of a particular race behave in a certain manner (duh !) But this is what I have observed:

1. Germans: Yes they do wake up first thing in the morning to beat the crowd & reserve a deck chair by placing a towel or book on it.

2. Koreans: Loud talkers, every conversation sounds like an argument, like wearing caps with wide brimmed visors & sparkles/lace/sequin tops. Plus they love the "all you can eat" breakfast buffet.

3. Aussies: like a drink, very easy going types, but some (when visiting S.E Asia) tend to have the mentality that although geographically neighbours; they are some how Superior to their Asian counterparts.

4. Americans: Loud talkers - Hey buddy sitting at the table 7 meters from me, you seem like a nice guy but I don't care to hear your conversation about how every thing is so much better in the U.S, especially over breakfast when I am nursing a hang over!!

5. Singaporeans: Very image conscious and materialistic, if it ain't branded they ain't wearing it.

6. Malaysians: Life revolves around food! The don't ask "how are you today?" rather "Have you had breakfast/lunch/dinner yet? And no wonder ! Malaysian Makan (food) is the best S.E Asian cuisine in my book!!!

7. Malaysians & Singaporeans: Have no shame in asking for a discount on anything & everything! I've picked up this habit, You'll be surprised how often it works even in stores with fixed pricing !

8. English: Um, like to brag & whinge (I'll blog about one particular pom later)

9. Russians: There is a reason why people day "Never trust a Russian" lol

10. Italians: take them to any Michelin Star restaurant any were in the world for a meal but rest assured "Their Mamma" can make it better.

11. Chinese: OMG! side track for a moment:

Our Chinese Chef will kill & cook anything he can get his hands on !!!

Pythons - Taste like chicken
Turtles - Hubby caught Chef in the nick of time & saved the turtle from becoming the chefs special soup of the day.
Crocodile - Tastes like chicken
Whale - Tastes like chicken, nah joking, I couldn't bring my self to sample this "specialty"

Ok, I'm cutting this post short now as I have probably offended just about every one out there.

"Thank You, Come Again"

Husband has left for India, He is doing a whirlwind trip to attend an interview for a new GM role in Mumbai.

Looks like a move in on the cards soon.

Mean while Im still sick, I really hope that monkey bite has nothing to do with me getting ill, I keep reminding my self that it didn't break the skin, I'm being paranoid and my flu/fever can't be related to it.

My friend sent me this youtube clip when I told him about Hubbys Indian trip, It's the funniest thing I've seen in a long time.